Interleaving paper feeder

ABSTRACT

A plurality of pieces of painted metal are cut from a roll of material. Pieces of paper are placed between the individual cut pieces of metal to prevent them from scratching the surfaces of each other. The paper feeder automatically feeds paper during every other feeding cycle of the metal to a cutter to automatically provide the required amount of paper spacing material.

ilnited States Patent Keith et al.

INTERLEAVING PAPER FEEDER Inventors: Earl G. Keith; Clarence E. Keith,

both of Route No. 1, Box 1295. Quarryville, Pa. 17566 Filed: May 5, 1972 Appl. No.: 250,647

US. Cl. 83/230, 53/157, 83/86,

Int. Cl B26d 5/20 Field of Search 83/272,-230,?225,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Eller et al. 53/157 X June 19, 1973 P rim ary ExaminerFrank T. Yost -Azt0rneyClifford B. Price, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT A plurality of pieces of painted metal are cut from a roll of material. Pieces of paper are placed between the individual cut pieces of metal to prevent them from scratching the surfaces of each other. The paper feeder automatically feeds paper during every other feeding cycle of the metal to a cutter to automatically provide the required amount of paper spacing material.

3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure INTERLEAVING PAPER FEEDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention herein is a paper feeder and, more particularly, an intermittently operated paper feeder to provide protective paper spacers between pieces of material in a stack.

2. Description of the Prior Art 7 Broadly, the idea of putting paper spacers between individual pieces of material is an old concept in the art. In many arts paper is placed between individual pieces in a stack so that the back surface of the next piece to be placed on the stack does not mar the tinished upper surface of the item which was just placed on the stack. For example, paper is placed between dishes so that the bottom of a dish will not scratch the face of the underlying dish.

Likewise, paper must be placed between the painted surfaces of metal components to prevent the scratching of the painted surfaces. When painted siding material or other similar type of painted metal surfaces are stacked together, they are sometimes stacked with two painted surfaces face-to-face and a paper therebetween. Then there are two back surfaces placed faceto-face. Normally, paper is not placed between these two surfaces because the back surfaces are normally unpainted, or if painted, scratching on the back surface would be immaterial. The primary desire is to protect the finished painted surface which will appear to the eye of the viewer. Since items are stacked with two finished surfaces face-to-face and then two back surfaces face-to-face and then again two finished surfaces faceto-face, there is provided only the paper spacing between the alternate spaces in the stack where finished surfaces are faceto-face.

In the metal working art where a roll of finished painted metal is cut into a series of short sections, the first piece is cut by one worker and placed with the painted surface up. A piece of paper is provided by a second worker and placed overtop of the painted surface, and then the second piece of metal is cut off and its painted surface is placed downwardfacing the sheet of paper. The third piece is cut and placed with its painted surface up so that the unpainted back surface of the third piece is adjacent to the unpainted back surface'of the second piece. The second worker then places a piece of paper on the painted surface of the third sheet and a fourth sheet is cut off and placed with its painted surface down against the paper. This type of operation requires a person just to position the paper between the sheets'of painted metal.

The major object of the invention herein is to automatically feed the paper at the proper time to make it available between the two painted surfaces of adjacent metal. No paper will be feed into the space between two facing backsides of metal sheets. Consequently, this requires intermittent feeding of the pieces of paper. The automatic feeding of the paper eliminates the need for the additional worker who would normally have to cut the paper to size and insert it between the sheets of metal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Sheet material with at least one finished surface is fed through an appropriate feed structure to a cutter mechanism. The cutter mechanism cuts the roll sheet material into pieces of sheet material. A roll of paper is placed adjacent the roll of sheet material and the paper is fed by the sheet material feeder into the cutting mechanism for the sheet material. Pieces of sheet material and paper are cut at the same time. However, the feeding of the paper is so controlled that it is only fed during every other feeding of the sheet material. The feeding of the paper is controlled in response to the cyclic operation of the cutter so that a piece of paper is fed with every other cut piece of sheet material. This then provides the proper amount of paper for spacing between every other interface of a stack of sheet mate rial pieces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The FIGURE of the drawing is a schematic showing of the invention herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The sheet material 2 is provided with at least one finished surface. In the embodiment shown in the Figure, the finished surface faces upwardly and has a surface of such a nature that it can be readily marred if contacted by the backside of the sheet 2. The sheet material 2 is passed through a plurality of roll structures 4, 6, 8 and 10. These roll structures could be conventional feed rolls or they could be embossing rolls which are providing the sheet material with some type of surface configuration. The sheet material then passes to a cutter assembly 12. The cutter assembly has a movable upper die 14 with a cutter structure 16 and back-up die 18. The purpose of the cutter assembly 12 is to cut the sheet material 2 into a series of lengths of sheet material.

As was indicated above, at least the upper surface of the sheet material has a surface coating which could be marred. As the sheet material is removed from the cutter assembly 12, it is stacked up. The first sheet 20 is placed on the bottom of the stack with the finished surface facing upward. The next cut piece 22 is then placed overtop of piece 20 with its finished surface facing downwardly; that is, toward the finished surface of sheet 20. The third piece 24 is then cut and placed with its back surface facing the back surface of sheet 22. Finally the fourth piece 26 is cut and its finished surface is positioned facing the finished surface of piece 24. Between sheets 20 & 22 and 24 & 26 there must be placed paper 28 and 30 to protect the finished surfaces at those interfaces from contacting each other and damaging each other. Between the sheets 22 and 24 there is simply the unfinished back surface of two sheets facing each other and there is no need to protect these sur faces by a protective paper interlayer.

The feeding of the paper sheets 28 and 30 is accomplished by the paper feeder of the invention herein. A roll of paper 32 is provided. The paper is fed off the roll past a rotating fixedly positioned roller 34 to a movable roller 36. The paper passes under roll 34, between rolls 34 & 36 and over roll 36. The paper then passes over slide 38 which then directs the paper to the finished surface of sheet 2 just prior to the time sheet 2 enters the cutter assembly 12.

In the embodiment shown in the drawing, roller 36 is in frictional contact with roller 10 which is one of the feeding structures for the sheet material 2. Movement of the feeding roll 10 to move the sheet material 2 also causes movement of feed roll 36 and corresponding movement of roller 34. This in turn causes the movement of the paper from the roll 32 down onto the sheet material 2. As long as the sheet material 2 is being fed, paper will be fed on top of the sheet material. When the sheet material is cut into a short section, the paper is also cut at the same time.

As was indicated above, it is only necessary that paper be fed every other time that a piece of sheet metal is fed and cut. This intermittent operation is accomplished by moving roll 36 out of engagement with roll during every other cycle of feeding the sheet material 2.

Roll 36 is supported in position by a lever 40. The lever 40 is a bellcrank structure which has its two arms separated by about a 90 angle. One end of the bellcrank structure is connected to a rod 42 of a solenoid structure 44. The other end of the bellcrank structure is connected to the shaft 46 of roller 36. This particular arm of the bellcrank actually forms a cradle in which the shaft of the roller 36 may rotate. Actuation of the solenoid to cause the rod 42 to move to the left of the drawing will cause the upper arm of the bellcrank to raise the roll 36 out of engagement with roller 10. This then prevents feeding of paper from the roll 32.

The solenoid structure is a simple solenoid with an arm which is actuated by electrical current to move to one position and, when the electrical current is removed, spring action returns it to a second position. Electrical current is provided to the solenoid 44 by a switch structure 48 which is mounted adjacent the cutter assembly 12. On the cutter assembly 12 there is a control arm 50 which is used to actuate the switch structure. The switch structure is a conventional switch which must be pushed once to set it to its closed position and pushed a second time to move it to its open position. Consequently, when the switch is pushed the first time to set it to its closed position, it will actuate the solenoid. This means that after the cutter has cut off the preceding piece of sheet material, the switch will be moved to its closed position. The switch will stay at its closed position until the cutter cuts off the next piece of sheet material. The switch is then moved to its open position. The switch will stay in its open position until the third piece of sheet material is cut. Consequently, it can be seen that during every other cutting sequence; that is, during the cutting of every other piece of sheet material, the switch is closed. This sequence of operation for the switch thus provides for the intermittent feeding of the paper to every other piece of sheet material to be cut. This then provides the sheet material for stacking in the manner shown in the stack of items on the left-hand side of the drawing.

What is claimed is:

1. A paper feeder for use with an apparatus which feeds the sheet material to the cutter assembly that cuts the sheet material into a plurality of lengths of material, said cutter assembly having a movable cutter structure and said sheet feeding apparatus having at least one feeding roller, said paper feeder comprising at least one feed roll which is operated in response to the movable cutter structure to feed paper into the cutter assembly on top of the sheet material during every other cycle of the cutter assembly cutting operation.

2. The paper feeder of claim 1 wherein the paper is fed between two roll structures, one roll structure being the above mentioned paper feeder feed roll, said feed roll being in contact with the above mentioned feeding roll of the sheet material feeding apparatus to feed paper during the time that sheet material is being fed, but said paper feed roll being out of engagement with the sheet material feeding roll during that time wherein paper is not to be fed with the sheet material.

3. The paper feeder of claim 2 wherein the paper feed roll is mounted on a bellcrank which is pivotedly operated by an electrical solenoid, said solenoid being operated by a switch means which is connected to the movable cutter structure so that the solenoid is actuated during every other cycle of the movable cutter structure to thus remove the-paper feed roll from engagement with the sheet material feeding roll during every other cycle of the cutter whereby paper will be fed only during the feeding of every other piece of sheet material to the cutter assembly. 

1. A paper feeder for use with an apparatus which feeds the sheet material to the cutter assembly that cuts the sheet material into a plurality of lengths of material, said cutter assembly having a movable cutter structure and said sheet feeding apparatus having at least one feeding roller, said paper feeder comprising at least one feed roll which is operated in response to the movable cutter structure to feed paper into the cutter assembly on top of the sheet material during every other cycle of the cutter assembly cutting operation.
 2. The paper feeder of claim 1 wherein the paper is fed between two roll structures, one roll structure being the above mentioned paper feeder feed roll, said feed roll being in contact with the above mentioned feeding roll of the sheet material feeding apparatus to feed paper during the time that sheet material is being fed, but said paper feed roll being out of engagement with the sheet material feeding roll during that time wherein paper is not to be fed with the sheet material.
 3. The paper feeder of claim 2 wherein the paper feed roll is mounted on a bellcrank which is pivotedly operated by an electrical solenoid, said solenoid being operated by a switch means which is connected to the movable cutter structure so that the solenoid is actuated during every other cycle of the movable cutter structure to thus remove the paper feed roll from engagement with the sheet material feeding roll during every other cycle of the cutter whereby paper will be fed only during the feeding of every other piece of sheet material to the cutter assembly. 